Players and officials have been hit directly on the chin for betting transgressions and now everyone knows where they stand in relation to any gambling on fixtures.

Manly's David Williams is the highest profile victim with his suspension for nine weeks for essentially having 'a punt'.

Some officials, in volunteer positions, have been sacked from their jobs while players and administrators in paid positions have been stood down.

It has been stressed there is no suggestion of match or spot fixing or that any official sacked or suspended has been in a position to influence the outcome of a result.

I applaud this stance by the NRL's Integrity Unit to draw a line in the sand - no betting whatsoever.

I am neither a gambler nor do I bet in any capacity (does a Lotto ticket count?), so the NRL's stance does not particularly bother me.

It does, however, highlight a double standard in the game. If gambling is so wrong, why do the NRL canvas for, endorse and strongly promote betting on games each week of its season? You cannot look on an NRL or club website without being hit with betting options on all games.

It is constantly highlighted on all league television shows as well as game day previews. Betting is within every culture, including Australia and New Zealand. All sports, including horses, greyhounds, rugby, cricket and football, have legal arrangements with betting agencies; you can even bet on who will win the most medals at the Olympics. It's everywhere and it's highly promoted. It is not surprising then that there are large captive audiences who want to have a bet, including those within the sport.

Sponsors involve themselves to sell their product and they seek the players for endorsement, so the many fans will purchase that product. Somehow this product is different.

If the Integrity Unit were being consistent, they should now enforce the same zero tolerance attitude to its alcohol issue. Will it ban people from the game if found guilty of drinking or will it wait for them to be guilty of a misdemeanour?

We hear of zero tolerance to this issue but the penalties are not as severe. Help is extended to those who transgress and second and third chances are given before suspension is handed down.

Alcohol has been at the forefront of the NRL's problems for years but never has there been an immediate suspension like this betting problem.

The line in the sand has been rubbed out and moved many times. Todd Carney, Josh Dugan and Blake Ferguson are among the recent culprits but they were not immediately suspended. It took numerous transgressions to reach a point where action was taken.

Why is betting different? If the NRL want to be socially conscious, it must stop being hypocritical with its policies and rules.

RECENTLY I asked a leading Brisbane rugby league referee to retell an old yarn about the days when he would have a bet during a game of football.

Think Suncorp Stadium, match of the day, Sunday afternoon, the 1980s.

Think Brothers, Redcliffe, Wynnum-Manly and other BRL teams, and a sporting world far less serious than it is today.

The referee was a straight as a bush highway but for a bit of fun, when standing behind a kicker taking a conversation attempt, would say “bet you a pot (of beer) you miss it.”

Some took up the offer and the bet would be settled in the leagues club at Suncorp (then Lang Park) after the game.

It was all a bit of a lark but when the NRL integrity unit swooped last week and suspended players for the heinous crime of having bets between $5 and $60 on games, my mind wandered back to that referee and his beer bets.

Even though no money changed hands, you wonder whether his whistle would have been snatched off him for good had he done it today.

Many would argue that rugby league was a far more innocent game in the 1980s but you could also suggest the opposite – that it actually had a more worldly appreciation of the vivid line between fair fun and dodgy practice.

Rugby league officials were in such a lather in the lead-up to last week’s “betting scandal” I half expected Osama bin Laden-style footage of a group of navy SEALs bursting into David Williams pad at Manly, then leaving via a helicopter as NRL boss Dave Smith watched via a video link.

The grandiose nature of the sting and the press conference suggested we should all be grateful that we can now raise our children in a sanitised world rid of the threat of players having $10 multibets.

Thank heavens for that.

The real truth is that if there is match-fixing in rugby league, it is not players having small multi-bets. It is people investing thousands of dollars on one game in mysterious accounts.

If betting on rugby league games truly is a cancer the game is intent on eliminating, then snip off the head, not the tiny tail hairs.

The NRL has no objection to 15 of its clubs having betting sponsors and nor did they object a while back to that now infamous ad where (Williams’ team) Manly, dressed in their Centrebet jerseys, reached up and touched a Centrebet sign.
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http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/when-it-comes-to-gambling-the-people-breaking-the-rules-arent-ultimately-the-problem-the-nrl-is-the-problem-20140711-zt3sy.html

In the words of Billy Birmingham, channeling Richie Benaud, “I’m sorry, but I am just going to have to go with me on this one." I refer specifically to the suspension of Manly winger David Williams for involvement in sports betting, together with four other players, while three game-day staff have been dismissed and another nine suspended.

For this rising dam of gambling culture corrupting the game is precisely what TFF has been ranting about for yonks. When the NRL takes money hand over fist from the sports betting operations – whose every dollar of profit comes from the pockets of the league community whose interests the NRL is meant to be looking after – how effective was it ever going to be wagging a finger at the players saying they must keep their distance from those betting operations?

And how unsurprising that the first major figure suspended should be a Manly player? For the best example of how far things have deteriorated came last year at the conclusion of the Manly Sea Eagles v Canterbury Bulldogs match at Brookvale. When Tom Waterhouse made his way into the Sea Eagles dressing room after their win, a Manly official was heard to loudly remark: “What’s he doing here? This is a Centrebet shed.”

Get it? Not the Manly shed, the shed of the mighty warriors of the peninsula, but the “Centrebet shed”! When league has made a fortune out of that kind of lucre, how obvious is it that there will always be a problem with betting culture taking over the entire game?

Yes, the NRL has moved quickly, and good on them, but does anyone think it stops there? When, last week, Cronulla came back from 24-0 down to beat the Roosters 30-28 – what are the odds, mate? – was I the only one who had a moment’s pause, to wonder if a fix was in? Oh, settle down. I have not a scintilla of evidence, and actually suppose it was just one of those one in 1000 matches that turns up extraordinary results, but still ...

But still, my point remains. The gambling culture corrupts and eats at the very credibility of the game.

So I really am going to have to go with me on this one. For, as I have written before, sports taking huge wads of gambling money is like drawing back on a Marlboro late on a Saturday night. Sweeeet! But whatever the pleasure, the more you do it, the more likely you are to get cancer and die a miserable death.

So, yes, bravo the NRL for catching these 17 league people who have got too close to gambling for comfort, including betting on games they are involved in. But, ultimately, they are not the problem. The NRL itself is. In the words of Pogo, the comic strip character: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Take your wolf-coloured glasses off. He bet on Rugby League which is against the rules. He got off lightly IMO. I can imagine your disgust if it was Billy Slater who did it.

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Code of Conduct was all Wolfie trangressed and he got 13 weeks suspension in effect.
NRL are only now introducing statutory declaration for Players to sign, that they will not bet on Rugby League games.

Statutory Declaration regarding having a sole NRL registered contract, was signed by Slater and co, inspite of knowing that he signed another unregistered contract. He was not suspended :huh:

I am not alone in noting the double standards, the above Journos have come to the same conclusion